If you’re planning on investing, and it’s your first time, take the time to read this before you make your first move. Investing is a tricky business and only the well-educated rise to the top.

#1 Going in unprepared

As a first time investor, we know you just can’t wait to get started. However, it’s important that you come in prepared so that you won’t make too many mistakes and get discouraged later on.

A great way to prepare yourself is by getting a personal investment plan. This helps you find out what you exactly want, including the amount of capital you’ll invest in a particular trade, how you’re going to go about diversifying your portfolio, how much you will invest in a certain trade, how much you’re willing to lose. It will also help you see all the potential risks. Getting a plan will give you a wall to lean on in times of doubt.

#2 Making an uneducated decision

Never skip on the research. No matter how lucky you think you are, guessing is a sure fire way to lead you to your downfall. Rely on stock market data and reliable channels of information to make decisions. Some examples of reliable sources for data are The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.

#3 Not mastering the art of risk

There are two ways that you can make risk-related mistakes. The first one is where you fail to evaluate your risks properly, resulting in making moves you didn’t see had a high risk of failure. The second one is where you think about the risks too much, thereby paralyzing you in fear and depriving yourself of lucrative investments because you were too afraid to fail.

You need to achieve a balance where you’re equally sensitive and confident. This only comes in due time. For a start, invest in safe bets like blue-chip stocks. Continue to work your way up once you start getting the hang of things.

#4 Not being able to determine what is too much

When you are still learning the ropes of stock market investments, a good strategy is to only invest in the money that you can afford to lose. You can lose everything in a blink of an eye, so separate your reserves from the money you plan on investing with. Make sure you have something to fall back on when all goes wrong.

#5 Thinking of investment as a get-rich-quick scheme

Investing in stocks will not make you rich overnight. It’s best if you see it as something that will provide you wealth spread throughout a long period of time. Seeing it as a get-rich-quick scheme may cause frustration once you see it for what it really is.

This may lead you to make bad decisions in an attempt to make a quick and easy buck. This mindset will not give you your much-desired wealth. If anything, it’ll give you a swift and easy way to exit the marketplace.

Stay educated, build your confidence, make smart decisions, and go about it in a slow and steady pace. Do this, and you’ll be alright.

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Posted by Sharon on Jul 19, 2017 in Investing | Comments Off on 5 Common Mistakes First-Time Investors Make

Building wealth is not an overnight venture, and the small spending practices you might be carrying on may be the main hindrances to your financial freedom.

To achieve your dreams of being rich or maintaining your wealth, you ought to start taking the following steps.

Work with a budget.

A budget is an estimate of what you plan to spend. In most cases, spending money on a daily basis is much simpler than saving it. Our needs are endless, and if you do not work with a budget, you will end up buying things which you do not genuinely require.

Condition your mind.

Your mind controls every activity you do or desire. The subconscious mind controls the conscious mind. The unconscious part of your mind might get very much inhibited depending on the contents you are feeding in your mind. Associating with successful people who have achieved high in their lives puts you in a better position of achieving your financial goals.

Avoid small or daily purchases.

Buying goods in bulk will allow you to buy at a lower price since there is an allowance for a quantity discount. You should develop a culture of buying in wholesale and avoid retail buying unless the situation cannot be avoided.

Run your cash on autopilot.

The concept implies that you assign your income to certain activities before it gets into your account; this gives the bank authority to make those payments immediately the money is received. Failure to do this can lead to unnecessary borrowing to settle bills you might have forgotten to pay while you had cash in hand. You can also authorize the bank to bank a certain amount to your saving account.

Learn to take actions fast.

Golden opportunities do not appear every day and failure to seize them on time can hinder you from moving from one point in life to another. Successful people implement their decisions as soon as possible. The advantage of this strategy is that if you succeed, you start getting returns immediately and in a case of difficulty encounter you will have time for another option.

Don’t spend money which you get unexpectedly.

Many companies give bonuses and sometimes dividends at rates you never expected. When you get the news of the excess money from what you expected, you get into a spending spree as if the cash was conditioned to be exhaustively used. Contrary to that common behavior, develop a habit of excess banking on money you get, and you never expected to get. Bank and forget is the best principle while dealing with such surprise cash.

Set realistic goals and read or research widely on them.

Starting on a journey without knowing where you are going is almost equivalent to wasting your energy; the same way getting money without having set goals of what you want to achieve will just leave you at the same point as before you got the money. Set financial goals on what you want to get and do a thorough research on what to do to give more life to your dreams.

Use energy efficient devices in your home.

Energy saving lamps can cut your lighting bills by 20%. Incorporating the use of efficient and effective power devices in your home can reduce your energy bills by up to 30%. This is a huge saving depending on your level of usage. In finance laws savings equates investment while computing income levels.

These energy saving can be achieved by use of light emitting diode (LED) lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)

Unsubscribe from all monthly subscriptions you do not require.

These are some of the bills which are deducted automatically from your accounts, and maybe you no longer need them. Check on your expenditure record and identify those items you need to do away with and only reinstate them when needed.

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Posted by Sharon on Jun 23, 2017 in Investing | Comments Off on Simple life tips which will help to save your wealth